Aviva Investors Global Services Limited et al. – ss. 3.1(1), 80

Headnote

Non-resident advisers exempted from adviser registration requirement in subsection 22(1)(b) of the Commodity Futures Act (CFA) where the non-resident acts as an adviser to mutual funds or non-redeemable investment funds in respect of trading in certain commodity futures contracts and commodity futures options -- Contracts and options are primarily traded on commodity futures exchanges outside of Canada and primarily cleared outside of Canada -- Funds are established outside of Canada, but may distribute their securities to certain Ontario residents.

Exemption subject to conditions corresponding to the requirements for the exemption from the adviser registration requirement in the Securities Act contained in section 7.10 of OSC Rule 35-502 Non-Resident Advisers -- Exemption also subject to requirements relating to the registration or licensing status of the non-resident adviser in its principal jurisdiction and disclosure to Ontario resident securityholders of the corresponding fund -- Exemption order has a five-year "sunset date".

Assignment by Commission to the Director of the powers and duties vested in the Commission under subsection 78(1) of the CFA to vary the exemption order by specifically naming affiliates of the initial applicants as named applicants for the purposes of the exemption, following an affiliate notice and Director consent procedure specified in the decision.

Statutes Cited

Commodity Futures Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. C.20, as am., ss. 1(1), 3.1(1), 22, 22(1)(b), 78(1), 80.

Securities Act (Ontario), R.S.O. 1990, c. S.5, as am., s. 25.

National Instruments Cited

National Instrument 45-106 Prospectus and Registration Exemptions.

OSC Rules Cited

OSC Rule 35-502 Non Resident Advisers, s. 7.10.

OSC Notices Cited

Notice of Proposed Rule 35-502 International Advisers, (1998) 21 OSCB 2583.

IN THE MATTER OF

THE COMMODITY FUTURES ACT,

R.S.O. 1990, CHAPTER C.20, AS AMENDED

(the CFA)

AND

IN THE MATTER OF

AVIVA INVESTORS GLOBAL SERVICES LIMITED,

AVIVA INVESTORS NORTH AMERICA, INC.

AND

AVIVA INVESTORS LUXEMBOURG S.A.

AND

IN THE MATTER OF

THE ASSIGNMENT OF CERTAIN POWERS AND

DUTIES OF THE

ONTARIO SECURITIES COMMISSION

ORDER AND ASSIGNMENT

(Section 80 and Subsection 3.1(1) of the CFA)

UPON the application (the Application) to the Ontario Securities Commission (the Commission) by Aviva Investors Global Services Limited (AIGSL), Aviva Investors North America, Inc. (AINA), and Aviva Investors Luxembourg S.A. (AIL) (collectively, the Aviva Applicants), on their own behalf, and on behalf of Aviva Affiliates (as defined below) that file an Identifying Notice (as defined below) to become a Named Applicant (as defined below), for:

(a) an order of the Commission, pursuant to section 80 of the CFA (the Order), that each of the Aviva Applicants, and each of the Aviva Affiliates that file an Identifying Notice to become a Named Applicant for the purposes of this Order (including their respective directors, partners, officers, employees or other individual representatives, acting on their behalf), is exempt, for a period of five years, from the adviser registration requirement in the CFA (as defined below) in connection with the Named Applicant acting as an adviser to one or more Funds (as defined below), in respect of Contracts (as defined below); and

(b) an assignment by the Commission, pursuant to subsection 3.1(1) of the CFA (the Assignment), to each Director (acting individually) of the powers and duties vested in the Commission under subsection 78(1) of the CFA, to vary the above order, from time to time, by specifically naming one or more of the Aviva Affiliates, that file an Identifying Notice, as a Named Applicant for the purposes of this Order;

AND WHEREAS for the purposes of this Order and Assignment (collectively, this Decision);

(i) the following terms shall have the following meanings:

"adviser registration requirement in the CFA" means the provisions of section 22 of the CFA that prohibit a person or company from acting as an adviser unless the person or company satisfies the applicable provisions of section 22 of the CFA;

"adviser registration requirement in the OSA" means the provisions of section 25 of the OSA that prohibit a person or company from acting as an adviser, as defined in the OSA, unless the person or company satisfies the applicable provisions of section 25 of the OSA;

"Aviva Affiliate" means an entity, other than the Aviva Applicants, that is an affiliate of one of the Aviva Applicants;

"Contract" means a commodity futures contract or a commodity futures option that is, in each case, primarily traded on one or more organized exchanges that are located outside of Canada and primarily cleared through one or more clearing corporations that are located outside of Canada;

"Director's Consent" means, for an Aviva Affiliate, the Director's Consent referred to in paragraph 3, below;

"Fund" means an investment fund;

"Identifying Notice" means, for an Aviva Affiliate, the Identifying Notice referred to in paragraph 2, below;

"Named Applicants" means:

(a) the Aviva Applicants; and

(b) Aviva Affiliates that have filed an Identifying Notice, to become a Named Applicant for the purposes of this Order, and for which the Director has issued a Director's Consent;

"Objection Notice" means, for an Aviva Affiliate, an objection notice, as described in paragraph 4, below, that is issued by the Director, following the filing by the Aviva Affiliate of an Identifying Notice, as described in paragraph 2, below;

"OSA" means the Securities Act (Ontario);

"OSC Rule 35-502" means Ontario Securities Commission Rule 35-502 Non Resident Advisers, made under the OSA; and

"prospectus requirement in the OSA" means the requirement in the OSA that prohibits a person or company from distributing a security unless a preliminary prospectus and prospectus for the security have been filed and receipts obtained for them;

(ii) terms used in this Decision that are defined in the OSA, and not otherwise defined in the Decision or in the CFA, shall have the same meaning as in the OSA, unless the context otherwise requires; and

AND UPON considering the Application and the recommendation of staff of the Commission;

AND UPON the Aviva Applicants having represented to the Commission that:

1. Each Aviva Applicant is, and any Aviva Affiliate that files an Identifying Notice for the purpose of becoming a Named Applicant in accordance with this Decision will, at the relevant time, be an entity organized under the laws of a jurisdiction outside of Canada. In particular:

(a) AIGSL is a company formed under the laws of England and Wales;

(b) AINA is a company formed under the laws of Iowa; and

(c) AIL is a company formed under the laws of Luxembourg.

2. An Aviva Affiliate, that is not a Named Applicant, that proposes to rely on the exemption from the adviser registration requirement in the CFA provided in this Order will complete and file with the Commission (Attention: Manager, Registrant Regulation) two copies of a notice (the Identifying Notice, in the form of Part A of Schedule A to this Decision), applying to the Director, acting on behalf of the Commission under the below Assignment, to vary this Order to specifically name the Aviva Affiliate as a Named Applicant for the purposes of this Order. The Identifying Notice will be filed not less than ten (10) days before the date the Aviva Affiliate proposes to rely on the exemption set out in the Order.

3. If, in the Director's opinion, it would not be prejudicial to the public interest to specifically name an Aviva Affiliate as a Named Applicant for the purposes of this Order, the Director will, within ten (10) days after receiving an Identifying Notice from the Aviva Affiliate, issue to the Aviva Affiliate a written consent (the Director's Consent, in the form of Part B of the attached Schedule). However, an Aviva Affiliate will not be a Named Applicant for the purposes of this Order unless and until the corresponding Director's Consent is issued by the Director.

4. If, after reviewing an Identifying Notice for an Aviva Affiliate, the Director is not of the opinion that it would not be prejudicial to the public interest to specifically name such Aviva Affiliate as a Named Applicant for the purposes of this Order, the Director will issue to the Aviva Affiliate a written notice of objection (the Objection Notice), in which case the Aviva Affiliate will not be permitted to rely on the exemption from the adviser registration requirement in the CFA provided to Named Applicants in this Order, but may, by notice in writing sent by registered mail to the Secretary of the Commission within 30 days after receiving the Objection Notice, request and be entitled to a hearing and review by the Commission of the Director's objection.

5. Subsection 78(1) of the CFA provides that the Commission may, on the application of a person or company affected by the decision, make an order revoking or varying a decision of the Commission if, in the Commission's opinion, the order would not be prejudicial to the public interest. Further, subsection 3.1(1) of the CFA provides that a quorum of the Commission may assign any of its powers and duties under the CFA (except powers and duties under section 4 and Part IV) to the Director.

6. Any Funds in respect of which a Named Applicant may act as adviser (under the CFA) pursuant to this Order will be established outside of Canada. Securities of the Funds are and will be primarily offered outside of Canada to institutional investors and high net worth individuals. To the extent the securities of the Funds will be offered to Ontario residents, such investors will qualify as "accredited investors" for the purposes of National Instrument 45-106 Prospectus and Registration Exemptions.

7. None of the Funds in respect of which a Named Applicant may act as an adviser (under the CFA) pursuant to this Order has any intention of becoming a reporting issuer under the OSA or under the securities legislation of any other jurisdiction in Canada.

8. Paragraph 22(1)(b) of the CFA prohibits a person or company from acting as an adviser unless the person or company is registered as an adviser under the CFA, or is registered as a representative or as a partner or an officer of a registered adviser and is acting on behalf of such registered adviser, and otherwise satisfies the applicable requirements specified in section 22 of the CFA. Under the CFA, "adviser" means a person or company engaging in or holding himself, herself or itself out as engaging in the business of advising others as to trading in "contracts", and "contracts" is defined in subsection 1(1) of the CFA to mean "commodity futures contracts" and "commodity futures options" (with these latter terms also defined in subsection 1(1) of the CFA).

9. Where securities of a Fund are offered by the Fund to an Ontario resident, a Named Applicant that engages in the business of advising the Fund as to the investing in or the buying or selling of securities may, by so acting, be interpreted as acting as an adviser, as defined in the OSA, to the Ontario residents who acquire the securities offered by the Fund, as suggested in the Notice of the Commission dated October 2, 1998, requesting comments on the then proposed OSA Rule 35-502. Similarly, where securities of a Fund are offered to Ontario residents, a Named Applicant that engages in the business of advising the Fund as to trading in commodity futures contracts or commodity futures options, may, by so acting, also be interpreted as acting as an adviser (as defined in the CFA) to the Ontario residents who acquire the securities offered by the Fund.

10. None of the Aviva Applicants is registered in any capacity under the CFA, and none of the Named Applicants will be registered under the CFA so long as the particular Named Applicant remains a Named Applicant for the purposes of this Order. If a Named Applicant advises any Funds (that has distributed its securities to any Ontario residents) as to investing in or the buying or selling securities, it will comply with the adviser registration requirement in the OSA. Currently, the Aviva Applicants are not registered in any capacity under the OSA, other than AINA, which is registered with the Commission as an international adviser (investment counsel and portfolio manager).

11. There is currently no rule or other regulation under the CFA that provides an exemption from the adviser registration requirement in the CFA for a person or company acting as an adviser, in respect of commodity futures options or commodity futures contracts, that corresponds to the exemption from the adviser registration requirement in the OSA for acting as an adviser, as defined in the OSA, in respect of securities, that is contained in section 7.10 of OSC Rule 35-502.

12. Section 7.10 of OSC Rule 35-502 provides that the adviser registration requirement in the OSA does not apply to a person or company acting as a portfolio adviser (as defined in the Rule) to a Fund (as defined in the Rule), if the securities of the Fund are:

(a) primarily offered outside of Canada;

(b) only distributed in Ontario through one or more registrants under the OSA; and

(c) distributed in Ontario in reliance upon an exemption from the prospectus requirement in the OSA.

13. The Aviva Applicants are or will be appropriately registered or licensed or are or will be entitled to rely on appropriate exemptions from such registrations or licences to provide advice to the Funds pursuant to the applicable legislation of its principal jurisdiction. In particular:

(a) AIGSL is authorized and regulated by the UK Financial Services authority to provide investment management services;

(b) AINA is registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as an investment advisor; and

(c) AIL is authorized and regulated by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier.

AND UPON the Commission being of the opinion that to do so would not be prejudicial to the public interest;

IT IS ORDERED, pursuant to section 80 of the CFA, that each of the Named Applicants (including the respective directors, partners, officers, employees or other individual representatives of each of the Named Applicants, acting on behalf of the Named Applicant) is exempted from the adviser registration requirement in the CFA in connection with the Named Applicant acting as an adviser to one or more Funds, in respect of Contracts, provided that:

1. at the time the Named Applicant so acts as an adviser to any such Fund,

A. the Named Applicant is not ordinarily resident of Ontario;

B. the Named Applicant is appropriately registered or licensed, or entitled to rely upon appropriate exemptions from registration or licensing requirements, in order to provide to the Fund advice as to trading in the corresponding Contracts, pursuant to the applicable legislation of the Named Applicant's principal jurisdiction;

C. securities of the Funds are:

(i) primarily offered outside of Canada;

(ii) only distributed in Ontario through one or more registrants under the OSA; and

(iii) distributed in Ontario in reliance on an exemption from the prospectus requirement in the OSA;

D. prior to their purchasing any securities of the Funds, all investors in the Funds who are resident in Ontario shall have received disclosure that includes:

(i) a statement to the effect that there may be difficulty in enforcing any legal rights against the Fund or the Named Applicant (including the individual representatives of the Named Applicant acting on behalf of the Named Applicant), because the Named Applicant is a resident outside of Canada and, to the extent applicable, all or substantially all of its assets are situated outside of Canada; and

(ii) a statement to the effect that the Named Applicant is not, or will not be, registered (or licensed) under the CFA and, as a result, investor protections that might otherwise be available to clients of a registered adviser under the CFA will not be available to purchasers of securities of the Fund; and

2. this Order shall expire five years after the date hereof;

AND UPON the Commission also being of the opinion that to do so would not be prejudicial to the public interest;

PURSUANT to subsection 3.1(1) of the CFA, the Commission hereby assigns to each Director, acting individually, the powers and duties vested in the Commission under subsection 78(1) of the CFA to:

(i) vary the above Order, from time to time, by specifically naming any one or more Aviva Affiliates that has filed an Identifying Notice, as described in paragraph 2, above, as a Named Applicant for the purposes of the Order, by issuing a Director's Consent, as described in paragraph 3, to the Aviva Affiliate; and

(ii) object, from time to time, to varying the above Order to specifically name any one or more Aviva Affiliates that has filed an Identifying Notice, as described in paragraph 2, above, as a Named Applicant, by issuing to the Aviva Affiliate an Objection Notice, as described in paragraph 4, above, provided, however, that, in the event of any such objection, the corresponding Aviva Affiliate may, by notice in writing sent by registered mail to the Secretary of the Commission, within 30 days after receiving the Objection Notice, request and be entitled to a hearing and review of the objection by the Commission.

April 21, 2009

SCHEDULE A

FORM OF IDENTIFYING NOTICE

AND

DIRECTOR'S CONSENT

Part A: Identifying Notice to the Commission

The undersigned, being an authorized representative of the above Aviva Affiliate, hereby represents to the Commission that:

1. On April _____, 2009, the Commission issued an order (the Order), pursuant to section 80 of the Commodity Futures Act (Ontario) (the CFA), that each of the Named Applicants (as defined in the Decision containing the Order) is exempt from the adviser registration requirement in paragraph 22(1)(b) of the CFA in respect of the Named Applicant acting as an adviser to one or more of the Funds (as defined in the Decision), in respect of Contracts (as defined in the Decision), subject to certain terms and conditions specified in the Order.

2. The Aviva Affiliate has attached a copy of the Decision to this Identifying Notice.

3. The Aviva Affiliate is an affiliate of Applicant.

4. The Aviva Affiliate (whose name does not specifically appear in the Order) hereby applies to the Director, acting on behalf of the Commission under the Assignment in the Decision, to vary the Order to specifically name the Aviva Affiliate as a Named Applicant for the purposes of the Order, pursuant to section 78 of the CFA.

5. The Aviva Affiliate confirms the truth and accuracy of all the information set out in the Decision.

6. This Identifying Notice has been filed with the Commission not less than ten (10) days prior to the date on which the Aviva Affiliate proposes to rely on the exemption from the adviser registration requirement in the CFA provided to Named Applicants in the Order, subject to the terms and conditions specified in the Order.

7. The Aviva Affiliate has not, and will not, rely on such exemption unless and until it has received from the Director, a written Director's Consent, as provided in the form of Part B of Schedule A attached to the Decision.

Dated at _________________________ this _____ day of __________, 20_____.

Part B: Director's Consent

I acknowledge receipt from the Aviva Affiliate of its Identifying Notice, dated _______________, 20___, by which the Aviva Affiliate has applied to the Director, acting on behalf of the Commission under the Assignment in the Decision attached to Identifying Notice, to specifically name the Aviva Affiliate as a Named Applicant for the purposes of the Order contained in the Decision.

Based on the representations contained in the Decision and in the Identifying Notice, and my being of the opinion that to do so would not be prejudicial to the public interest, on behalf of the Commission, as a Director for the purposes of the Commodity Futures Act (Ontario), I hereby vary the Order to specifically name the Aviva Affiliate as a Named Applicant for the purposes of the Order.

Dated at _______________ this ____ day of ____________, 20___.

ONTARIO SECURITIES COMMISSION

By: